Laura Marling may have won Best Female at this year’s Brit Awards, but don’t
mistake her for a conventional pop star. Just 21, Marling is more Joni
Mitchell than Jessie J. Her songs are haunting folk with lyrics that reveal
her love of Jane Austen.

Coupled with her demure demeanour — she has just conquered crippling stage
fright — Marling has always seemed startlingly unmodern. Her outfits are
dowdy rather than daring.

The singer’s present tour, When the Bell Tolls, takes her to 11
English cathedrals and certainly suits her. On the opening night in Exeter,
in front of an 800-strong audience